DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME DramaDensetsu Kyojin Ideon
MOVIE DramaDensetsu Kyojin Ideon: Sesshoku-hen

REVIEWS

• 

  brandotendie

  100/100
  a masterwork of experimentation in the medium of anime. a worthy progenitor to Anno's End of Evangelion.

  The Ideon: Be Invoked ran so End of Evangelion could fly.

  i haven't been THIS slackjawed at anything anime since my first watch of End of Evangelion several years ago.

  absolutely masterful. the best payoff i've gotten from the groundwork of a preceding TV show tie-in since motherfucking Fire Walk with Me. it's THAT amazing.

  the sheer amount of emotions this film puts you through as it boils to a mind-melting fever point is overWHELMING. the previous 39 (well, 38 really if we have to discount the final episode) episodes completely lull us into believing in the in-world plot armor; everyone on board the Solo Ship and the Ideon are protected.

  there's never been a situation where they would die or be harmed. so when that plot armor is stripped away, and we see MAIN CHARACTERS and fucking TODDLERS getting their heads blown off, brains splattered by shrapnel, the shit is absolutely horrific. it doesn't even need to be overtly gory or bloody (in fact, some deaths are quite beautiful) to evoke gutting feelings of despair/disgust as everyone is slaughtered to the bitter end.

  it doesn't help that this film takes extra, extra, extra care to humanize literally EVERYONE with momentary character moments/beats on both sides. every protagonist has a moment and interactions, every notable side character. we start to care for them in this film even more than we did in the entire run of the preceding show.

  and of course it's at the end, even when we've identified and felt pity for the villainous Buff Clan leader, that's when the plot armor is ripped off and everyone, EVERYONE, starts getting picked off one at a time through a series of near-graphic deaths. apocalypse wrought by hellfire.

  it's a truly dreadful experience.

  but then, when you think it's all over, the film completely turns itself end over end and becomes a transcendent spiritual spectacle complete with intercut live action footage, a powerful 2001 homage, and several minutes of an ethereal choral/symphonic closing suite.

  it's an emotional whiplash that eventually leaves you in a transfixed, arresting catharsis. i haven't felt this way in years about any film, anime or otherwise.

  there's much to be said about its overt allusions to the Freudian psychoanalytic theories regarding Id, or the Judeo-Christian overtones in its infamous Kill-Em-All Tomino ending (which Hideaki Anno more than obviously took many cues from), but the best thing about the ending is it doesn't just speak or preach or babble about these philosophic ideas, instead it just shows us.

  again, just like Kubrick's 2001, Be Invoked takes larger-than-life ideologies, philosophies, and theories and strips all the jargon away to instead present it in its most raw form using the primary vessel for ideas in the medium of film: visuals.

  with all of those layers working in tandem, Tomino succeeds in weaving an experience that isn't just a suckerpunch to the gut, but a veritable barrage that assaults every key emotional and cerebral point in your soul.

  truly larger than life, a masterpiece through and through. a film that i find myself running out of superlatives to describe.

  between this and Do You Remember Love? it's now obvious to me that 80s Japan has created the best space operas of all time outside of Star Wars.

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• 

  SpiritChaser

  100/100
  Traumatizing beauty. The Ideon is a horrifying thing. Cosmo's nightmare reaches it's breath taking climax.

  There will be spoilers as there is no other way I can do this.

  When I first watched Ideon with the series, I sat in awe of the marvel of the Ideon itself. A giant sentient being with unlimited power. Still, there was always something that didn't feel right from the start. It's the lyrics to the opening. As much as I felt grateful for it saving the cast time and time again, something didn't feel right. Something felt eerie, or even disturbing, about the Ideon. Soon enough, it's shown that this is a monster, and no one from Captain Bes's ship wanted it anymore soon after. But they, along with the Buff Clan itself, were trapped in the Ideon's web. In a way, it felt as if the Ideon played them all like toys for it's amusement. Whether they wanted to or not, they would all spiral into madness and fail the Ideon's test, receiving divine judgement by the end as it destroyed all of them and restarted existence itself.

  I experienced levels of horror during this movie that not even Monster can touch. Seeing my beloved cast get their heads melted off, guts destroyed, shot in the face, obliterated by shrapnel, incinerated, go literally insane, and thrown into space was an experience that left me so shaken, that even now, after the fact, I feel I have to write this review as a form of therapy.

  No one survived. And yet, there is a beauty to this story as powerful as the fear it put into me. The entire cast found peace, and resurrected by the end.

  Everyone who's watched both knows that Neon Genesis Evangelion screams Ideon. Ideon must be acknowledged and watched for it's impact in the 90s era of anime with that series. Anime would be very different if it weren't for the hands of the Ideon: that which molded Evangelion.

  Of all the Tomino protagonists, I've watched, from Amuro, to Kamille, to Judau, I place Cosmo above them all. His life was a nightmare; underserving. Having everyone you love die in front of you over the course of 39 episodes and a movie one by one, while having to endure it and keep fighting to survive left me feeling a deep respect for his strong will and determination. He doesn't fight with unsurety; he fights knowing he will win. Even when he had nothing left to lose, he still brilliantly and courageous paved his own destiny until the very end. His iconic moment was when he lost his mother figure, and let out a scream so loud that even the Ideon screamed with him. Even Hideaki Anno would harvest this moment with Shinji.

  This is a movie that really left me thinking. Besides Cosmo, Kasha is the second character that really started to grow on me, even more so after watching all this. Her honesty and logic seemed almost flawless, and yet caused her more frustration than anything else.

  They say they don't make them like they used to. I think it's a matter of the time period. Ideon is product of it's time. Today it wouldn't be possible as future generations think differently now, and the masters of older anime are for the most part no longer here. It doesn't mean that anime has hit a low. Among the ocean of degeneracy that exists, there is still wonder to find if you really look for it. There will always be something sincere like Space Runaway Ideon tomorrow. Maybe they won't be widely acclaimed or known in the West that much, but they'll be there. Even so, I will appreciate the Ideon experience because it invoked emotions out of me that I didn't think were possible.

  The Ideon wasn't necessarily instigating. It questioned intelligent life because of humanity's inevitable urge to go to war with itself eternally. To the horror of the Ide, the war mongering never ended. It watched as the fighting destroyed planets, killed off animals, and put fear and terror into the young and innocent. There's no denying that mankind is a creature that has it's own extinction plan built into it as a price to have intelligence. Intelligence, as important as it is, gives people the realization that they want power and to rule with it, and all that corrupts. Regardless, the Ideon still gave them a second chance. War will never stop until the last shot that is able to be given is taken. Humans won't ever put an end to war until war itself put's an end to them.

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• 

  lublei

  75/100
  Not a masterpiece but still a great film

  I was disappointed by Ideon in part because nearly every review gave it a perfect score. The world of Ideon asks me to suspend my disbelief too much and supports a contemptuous view of humanity. I didn’t hate the film. There are plenty of reviews praising Ideon, so I wanted to touch on stuff other reviews mostly don’t. I haven’t watched the entire TV series, but I believe my criticisms apply regardless of that.

  Suspension of Disbelief

  My first major gripe is in-universe Ide shouldn’t be so important, especially at the start. It is stated directly in the film that one of the major reasons the Buff Clan has continued fighting is that the power of Ide can destroy their home planet, and they also mention constant meteors being sent to their planet. But the technology of Ideon is too advanced for Ide to be the only way to destroy planets. They can clearly travel or at least communicate faster than light, and even use a supernova as a weapon later on in the movie. Both of those technologies would be capable of destroying solar systems, yet Ide is treated as an unprecedented threat. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to avoid this problem, by having the story take place on a smaller scale, not introducing guided supernovas, etc. but Ideon includes these elements to the detriment of its story. The power of Ide isn’t a weapon worth a war to acquire in the world of Ideon.

  

  Minor Issues

  I have a few minor issues with characters occasionally becoming brain-dead. Two examples especially bothered me, the first being when two characters tried to kiss with helmets, but they couldn't figure out how to tilt their heads. And the second is when a character went into one of the dumbest villain taunts I have ever seen, to a person who pulled a gun on her while a soldier with a gun in her hand, that presumably should be protecting her, stared into space. Characters are killed a lot in the movie so this scene genuinely baffled me, the villain is even proven right when the character misses. Also, the main cast ignores the obvious bait of the enemy, even after falling for the same tactic once. These are more nitpicks than large problems, but they added up throughout the movie for me.

  

  Message

  My biggest issue is the weird view of humanity in the film. The power of Ide stems from the collective minds of intelligent life and is portrayed as a power for good, standing for justice and the innocent, etc. The main cast acts with the belief that they are guided by Ide. However, an all-powerful entity that is supposed to be good creates some questionable scenarios and presents contempt for humanity as a good thing.

  Major Spoilers Start Here

  The Ide is protective of children and often acts to protect babies from harm, yet it isn’t stupid and when a character tries to manipulate Ide by essentially abusing a child the character dies. Ide believes grown people aren’t worth as much as babies and even protects a 4-month-old pregnant woman's child while letting her die. However Ide also reins meteors on planets and has no problem destroying them, I guess no babies live outside of the spaceship? Wasn’t there a single pregnant woman in the multitude of vessels Ide destroyed? Since they would have to be, why are those babies' lives worth less than the ones on board the Solo ship? None of these questions are answered, or even asked in the film. It is mentioned in the film that Ide destroyed those planets “to erase those with evil hearts” but it also destroyed presumably billions of innocents in the process. This is supposed to be a bible reference, either of Noah’s flood or Sodom and Gomorra, but the makers of the film clearly missed the part about not everyone dying in both those stories and that the bible doesn’t paint a very charitable view of god if you take everything in it literally. If the film didn’t call the child of Karala Messiah and deified them the weird Christian parallels might have been excusable. The emphasis on Messiah made me think the makers of the movie gave up halfway through reading a summary of a story from the bible and then decided to base their ending on it.

  

  The ending is the part where the weird ideology of the film fully shows itself. The Ide kills every human and decides to create humanity anew through the messiah because apparently, that is the solution that is best for the preservation of intelligent life. Ide clearly dislikes humanity, even babies if they don’t happen to be inside the Solo ship, as it has no issue killing billions even before this event. Since Ide is portrayed as good, this view I can only describe as anti-human is also supposed to be good. In the end, everyone is shown as happy to have been eradicated. The film’s point seems to be that humans will kill each other no matter what so the best thing to do is kill them all and start fresh. The ending is basically “Kill them all; let God sort them out.” applied to the whole of humanity. Perhaps in 1982 total war seemed closer but that still doesn’t justify this disdain for humanity in my eyes. Blind hatred of humanity isn’t a good ideology to preach and I find no redeeming qualities in that worldview.

  Major Spoilers End Here

  Evangelion

  I feel obligated to mention Evangelion since every other review also does. This movie isn’t really a progenitor of Evangelion's ideals, it preaches nearly the exact opposite. The mechas and Christian symbolism are present in both, but their ideology is completely different. The ending of Ideon has more similarities with Platinum End than Evangelion once you exclude the imagery.

  Conclusion

  Lastly, I want to repeat I didn’t hate Ideon, I was just disappointed because my expectations were inflated. Even though I find its message, at best, misguided Ideon delivers its message and general story well, despite a few hiccups. Even when watching the movies it made me understand and care about its characters and the main conflict. This isn’t a bad film, but it also isn’t nearly as great as many reviews suggest. I would recommend Ideon to all who enjoy mecha and space operas, on the condition that they temper their expectations a bit.

  Oh, and there is also a scene of a squirrel eating bread through a helmet which I found hilarious and wanted to mention.

  
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